Re: Making the "1" mandatory in phone number

Anonymous
Not applicable

Making the "1" mandatory in phone number

I've recently hooked up Twilio for a client, and it needs a traditional "+1-555-123-4567" number to send a text message. Is there a way to enable making the "1" at the start of the phone number mandatory?

3 REPLIES 3
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Making the "1" mandatory in phone number

Hi Ross,

If the phone number is being captured 'only' from web forms, you can add javascript code to 'automatically add '+1' to the phone number.

But chances are there are other ways phone number are created in Marketo database. In that case, you might have to write a 'web hook' to automatically add '+1' to the phone number if it is not there already. You might be able to use the 'free' web hook we created at BrightHooks.com. Here is more information.

Web Hook Library

You can use this web hook in a smart campaign that 'triggers' on 'data value change of phone number' or just before you call Twilio.

Hope this helps

Rajesh

Josh_Hill13
Level 10 - Champion Alumni

Re: Making the "1" mandatory in phone number

There are a few considerations:

  • Are you targeting US/CAN only folks? If so, you can just use Forms 2.0's masking to do this. Rajesh's suggestion also works if you want.
  • Webhooks and Normalization also work. Make sure you only append +1 when the lead is in the US or Canada! Guam is also on +1.
  • Manual - could you pull the target list first and use excel to update or webhook just for that list? Might reduce automation errors while you figure out the best algorithm.
Nicholas_Manojl
Level 9

Re: Making the "1" mandatory in phone number

If the issue is that absolutely no-one is putting in +1 to the phone number, then you could include that in the webhook that sends your SMS.

&send-sms.do?to=+1{{lead.mobile phone number}}

But if the problem is that some people are putting in +1 and some aren't, then the normalisation webhook will be required.